Why the Mavericks Are the PERFECT Fit for Cooper Flagg in the 2025 NBA Draft | Dallas Mavs Podcast

Why the Mavericks Are the PERFECT Fit for Cooper Flagg in the 2025 NBA Draft | Dallas Mavs Podcast

On today’s show, we talked a lot about how Cooper Flag is an amazing fit for the Dallas Mavericks. But why are the Mavs a good fit for Cooper Flag? We’ll talk about that and more today’s like a Mavs. All right, I got Martina back up. I mean, if we get top two, that’s insane. Fourth pick is the Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte Hornets. Philadelphia 76ers. Oh my god. Maverick. Stop it. Let’s just stop. The number one pick will go to the Dallas Mavericks. Cooper flag will fly in Dallas. You are a locked on man. Your daily Dallas Mavericks podcast. Part of the locked on podcast network. Still can’t leave. Your team every day. I’m going to give a city like back and welcome. You are locked on of the Dallas Mavericks. Your team every day. My name is Nickstead. Medium member covering the Dallas Mavericks for 10 years. Thanks for being every day. Making lock on Maps your first listen. Joining me as always, my co-host, medium member, cover the Dallas Masters, right alongside me, the FitFinder, the one More Think King. What you got for me, Isaac Harris? I don’t have anything for you today. Oh, nothing. What you got for me is nothing. Is this a Is this a first? It’s not August yet. We got to have something. Uh, I mean, I watched the Knicks Pacers game. Shout out to the Knicks for at least putting up a fight in Minnesota. And uh man, I just really want a game seven in the garden. Figure out a way to pull out this win in Indiana to where we get a game seven in the garden with Shalamé. I don’t even know what style he is rocking right now, but the early Guyieti. That’s what he’s That’s that’s good. I like that. That’s what he was doing. Oh man. Today’s episode we’ll talk about a team that’s not in the playoffs. Sad. We’ll talk about the Dallas Mavericks and why the Mavericks are good fit for Cooper Flag himself. They have a lot of bunch of different things to me that they’re a win now opportunity. They’ll have opportunity for offense early on. And so there’s a lot of different things that I’m going to take and think that the Mavs are a good fit for Flag himself and why it’ll be a good spot for him. But let’s start here. I know that I was the blow it up guy earlier this week and yes, long term if the Mavs want to do that, sure, assetwise and everything it would make more sense. But I do think that having veteran championship experience in a Klay Thompson, an Anthony Davis, a Kyrie Irving, to be there with Cooper Flag early in his career, like that is just invaluable experience to have next to a guy like that. We saw what happened when Durk was there with Luca early in his career and how Luca was able to take from Durk. We’ve seen how other stars have passed to the ones, you know, the next generation and how that’s worked out for them. And I just can’t imagine that having Klay Thompson who’s a four-time champion, been in the NBA for 14 years, played 158 playoff games, Anthony Davis, champion, 12 years in the NBA, 60 playoff games. Kyrie Irving, champion, 13 years in the NBA, 96 playoff games. And then to top it all off, Dwight Powell, who just can show Cooper Flag how to last on an NBA roster for through multiple regimes. And he’s played in a finals and stars. He’s played in a finals. he’s played in playoff games, but to have that kind of veteran experience, I think is invaluable for a guy like that and and I think that that’s a reason why this is a good fit. Yeah. I mean, Dwight was there in ‘ 06 also and and 2011 and uh and all that. you know, I started going going through it uh because, you know, we’ve talked about this a lot on our pod about how we both think this is like super valuable for Cooper Flag to be with um and it here’s the difference though. There is a big difference when you have the experience and the veteran leadership in the rotation and playing. Um I think it’s it’s awesome whenever you see teams add the guy on the end of the bench. You get like a PJ Tucker for with the Knicks right now. You see a James Johnson with Indiana, you know, these guys that teams throw, you know, when Hasslam was there for Miami, Maris for the Mavs last the other year. Yeah. And it’s like you have that guy at the end of the bench. Um and then sometimes it’s a guy who has, you know, a championship or something like that and you’re you’re writing the pieces and everything saying like, “Ah, dude, that dude at the end of the bench, he just has that voice in the locker room. He just tells them, hey, this is what it was like when I played in the finals.” And the difference is you get to play with those guys that they’re at a like the peak of their game. I mean, let’s say relatively speaking of a Kyrie and Clay and AD that they’re going to be starting if not starting sixman playing a ton of minutes with you. And that’s the I think and you look at the other options that he could have went to just looking like at championship experience and you look at the lottery and it’s like San Antonio, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Utah, Washington, New Orleans. Like how many of these players would he be playing with that have won a title before in the rotation for all of these teams? Brooklyn, Toronto, I mean Houston, Portland, Chicago. Like I I just don’t I mean I’m I’m just doing this off at off the top of my head and it’s like this is the one situation in the top 14 that you’re stepping into a rotation with two to three guys that at top of their games right now and have rings uh under their belt and stuff. So, I think that’s I think that’s just going to be huge for somebody like Cooper flag. Besides maybe the Warriors with Curry and Draymond and then like LeBron himself on on the Lakers, there may not be a team with more championship and playoff experience than than the Mavericks with those three guys. I mean, you’re talking about what 300 playoff games between between the three of them. That that is really hard to do and hard to get to. And so that that’s in that’s invaluable for a guy like that because we’ve already seen that he’s the he’s the sponge that he’s going to take a lot from these guys. He’s going to watch them work. He’s going to watch Kyrie work back from an injury. He’s going to work watch Anthony Davis try and lead this team at the four position which is what we think eventually Flag will grow into. Watch Klay Thompson shoot. Like the thing that Cooper Flag needed to work on the most last year was three-point shooting and he’s going to watch one of the greatest of all time do it. People are going to lose their minds at the fa first training camp footage of him and Klay doing a three-point drill around the ark after practice and like if he gets Clay’s shot then it’s over. The league’s not ready. The league’s not ready. But here’s another thing about those three guys or at least the two of them and Kyrie and AD. They came in the league as number one picks and they came in with expectations. They came in like with all the hype going through high school and into their college seasons. I know Kyrie’s, you know, didn’t play a ton because of injury, but like Anthony Davis, similar position, number one pick, high school hype, one year in college, like that alone, like it’s once again, it’s not even like just the championship experience in the rotation, but you get championship experience from number one overall picks who’ve like kind of walked the life that you have and’s going to be playing with you. I think just all of that is a is a great thing. And if you don’t believe that it’s not, then like whatever your opinion is, you know, like we can differ on that. Uh because, you know, you could look at different players and like, oh, this player played with this guy and it didn’t mean anything. But also look at a guy that you brought up not too long ago and like look at what Kawaii stepped into in San Antonio and it’s like yeah he stepped into more rings and stuff that Duncan and uh you know Duncan Genobbly Parker and those guys had and the playoff experience and stuff but like Kawawaii stepped in as this like super young guy into that situation with those guys with all the experience and then bam I mean he’s had a pretty good career. Do you remember the uh do you remember the covers of SI that were like prepared to get schooled and it was it was Kevin Garnett with Carl Anthony Towns cuz they were playing together. It was like the number one pick with Kevin Garnett who and then it was you remember the other ones? No, it was D’Angelo Russell with Kobe Bryant and it was Dwayne Wade with Justice Winslow. Oh. That’s awesome. Sometimes it works out like that, right? Like where you go I mean and Towns has been an allNBA player and he’s been an all-star and I mean he’s he hasn’t fully followed in the path of of Kevin Garnett been an MVP, but he’s he’s been a very good player in the league. Russell and Justice Winslow were not that level of players and are not the level of player that Cooper Flag even is right now. Did you see uh did you get a chance to check out Wade’s new chest tattoo? Dwayne Wade. I try not to look at Dwayne Wade as much as I possibly can. All right. What is it? If you can imagine something that would fit um Yeah, it’s just it’s incredible, man. Is it him coughing? It’s him on the ground like getting back up seven times. Okay, wait. I just looked at it. Yeah, it’s okay. Oh my god. Yeah, it’s great, ain’t it? This is incredible radio. He It’s a It’s just like an image of him. He’s like a little cartoon character at the bottom pointing up. He’s got his Wade three jersey on. The basket has a three on the shot clock synergy and has his logo on the bottom of the stansion. Yeah. Then there’s like the the stylized photo lens flare thing behind it and it has his Richards, I’m assuming, is his high school jersey. Has his Marquette jersey, has his Team USA jersey and his Heat jersey on it and he’s pointing up at it just like, “Hey.” Yeah. Sat down in the chair. I want to put my accolades and myself on my chest because I want to look in the mirror and just like see me and see what I’ve done. And have you have you ever listened to Brian Regan the comedian? No, I haven’t. So Brian Rean has this joke where he talks about there’s always that person that you run into that’s the me monster that anytime you tell a story they’re like they got to one up it and like say me like I did it better. And so somebody will be like, “Yeah, you know, I we went to, you know, uh we went to the Grand Canyon this weekend.” Well, I walked on the moon. Like that’s that’s the one you can’t top is like if you walked on the moon. Yeah. Somebody we having dinner is like, “Yeah, I got my last name, you know, on my like inner bicep.” And he’s like, “Hold up. Hold on. Me. Me. I have my whole life right here and everything I’ve done.” And got all my jerseys on me on the basket. LeBron is so jealous right now. LeBron’s going to get it himself. He’s going to get the Dwayne Wade one coming up. The reason why some people might think that playing with that much championship experience is not great for Flag is because the opportunity is not going to be there early on, but I believe there is some kind of offensive opportunity for him to learn in a different way. We’ll talk about that and more coming [Music] up. Today’s episode of Locked Up Maps brought to you by Door Dash. 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Again, when any player scores 50, Dash Bash members can grab a free threepiece crispy tenders combo from Wingstop the very next day with a $20 or more order and the code wingstop 50. It’s the words Wing Stop, then the number 50, all one word. That’s Dash Bash. Your door to more savings, more flavor, and more ways to win. Terms apply. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for hanging out with us on Unlock Maps, being part of the show, part of the Raccoon Squad, what we call our listeners. We appreciate each and every one of you for checking out the show and listening every day. We’ll have a show all throughout the offseason. If you’re new here, this is what we do and we’ve been doing it since 2017. Hey Nick, can I ask you a question? So, what do y’all do in the off season? Oh, it’s the question I get the most after do you like your job? The next question I get is what do you guys talk like so you guys stop in the offseason? No, we’ve been going 5 days a week through the off season for like the LA like since 2018 probably. I don’t think we did the first couple years. For a long time we’ve been doing this. And so what do we talk about? We’ll talk about this. We’ll talk about Cooper flag a lot. We’ll talk about the the opportunities for the Mavericks in free agency. Other opportunities in the draft. There’s a lot of things we’ll get into. We’ll we’ll obviously cover summer league very extensively and all kinds of stuff like that. We’ll have fun on here. So, stick with us. Isaac and I slightly be joined and we’ll have guests as well. All right, Isaac, we’re talking about ways that the Mavericks are a good fit for Cooper Flag. And you talked about there are some people that may think that playing with that much experience and playing with this many vets and playing with a win now team like this is not great for Cooper Flag because there are some people that say you’ve got to you got to get your get your lumps early. You’ve got to go out there and you’ve got to play and you’ve got to go out there and take 20 shots a game and figure out what’s what’s right for you. Figure out how you fit in the NBA and then grow that way. I think he is going to get like 15 shots a game early because the Mavs are going to need offense. Maybe not 15, but like he’ll get a bunch he’ll get a lot of opportunity early in the offense and and early in the season because the Mavs aren’t going to have a Kyrie who’s who they’re expecting to come back. So, they’re not going to fully replace him. They’re not going to go out and get a guard that fully replaces and takes all those possessions away. They have, you know, a center in Dererick Lively that doesn’t demand the ball that much. They have Anthony Davis who is going to have the ball a lot, but they have like Klay Thompson who plays off of guys. He doesn’t demand the ball that often. We You’ve got PJ Washington doesn’t demand the ball that often. You’ve got to have somebody that that eventually fills that vacuum. And I think Cooper Flack can do that. And I think that’s where he figures out how to get his offense. He’ll have ear he’ll have opportunity early to transition his offensive game and to grow early because I think there’s going to be some early mistakes there. But that’s where you grow and hopefully by the time Kyrie comes back and the playoffs are done, he knows what his NBA offense at least for his first first year is going to be. Yeah. I’ll put as a one of the bullet points on mine was structured system where he will need to score. There’s a difference between going into a system in which hey, you’re just going to need to score because they don’t have anybody else. Uh going to like a Washington if they won the lottery. It’s like, hey, have fun. Like Alex Sar and Kulabali caring and it’s like just get the ball to him, you know, when Jordan P’s not on the floor instead of going to a system like a system in which Dallas is running to be a playoff team and to win games and to try to win games every time you get on the floor. There’s a difference in that between, you know, going to a situation like Washington, like, cool, you can get up your 17 shots a game, but ultimately, we’re going for another draft pick here. All right, so we’re going to lose a ton of games. And we know you’re not used to losing a ton of games in your lifetime, but step into this situation. We promise losing looks cooler here with a paycheck. So, yeah, I think that’s the thing. Your point, I mean, that’s the main reason I put it on there, too, is like he’s going to step into a system that Kyrie’s going to be out. So, he’s going to be asked to probably score a decent amount. I think AD still leads the, you know, team in shot attempts and stuff, but like he should get a decent amount of and and I’ll add another one to this. Go ahead. And I put in there that he’s going to step into a system to where he has a lob threat too and a couple lob threats, especially if they keep gather. So at Duke um you know he had Malawatch and it’s like this dude is 7 foot2 with arms that can tie his shoes standing up and you know he ran the pick and roll a ton and especially when you look at his numbers I mean it was the highest offensive percentage of his possessions. You see how much he ran the pick and roll ball handler spot. All of these as the high pick and roll 1.04 points per possession in that all of them is over a 1.0 you know points per possession. And it’s like he’s really good at running pick and roll, making the right decisions, scoring, doing all. So you’re stepping into a system that was built around a pick and roll guy. Not saying that Cooper Flag’s going to be a pick and roll maestro like Luca is. I mean Luca is like the upper echelon of all people who can run pick and roll, but it’s like he he can do that and he excels in that. So you can actually throw it to him and say, “All right, let’s run a high pick and roll with Lively going down the floor while AD’s on the bench getting a breather and like he has the lob threat, too.” And I watch too many Duke games in which Cooper Flag got the ball in the elbow and that kind of like mid-range spot and he does a couple moves and then he’s just he just has this touch around the basket. He just lobbs it up to Malawatch and he just throws down this easy dunk and I’m like this is going to be lively like I don’t know six times a game. It’s going to be back to the Luca days with that. Oh absolutely. One of my other ones was he’s got he has a Duke running mate in Derek Lively to grow with lob threat that he he’ll have to to figure out how to how do they play off of each other. Incredible defensive combo. Like even I went through the the timeline like eventually in you know two three years when Anthony Davis is not on the team or contract runs out or when he steps back maybe into a smaller role you have Flag and Lively that’ll be the next generation of this Mavericks team. And to have those guys together that’s one reason why it’s a good fit. like Lively is a foundational piece that can play in a finals that we already know that none of these other teams know that they have a player that can play in the finals, especially one that fits so well with a Cooper flag. I I guess my big thing is like what and I think everybody has their own definitions of this, but what makes a good fit for a player? Like fit means so much. Like I I think fit honestly gets like underrated when it comes to like prospects and stuff because I think you ultimately all I always go back to like Rondo in Boston and it’s like I remember those Kentucky days and he was so young and lanky and everything and then he declared and it’s like I remember a bunch of my Kentucky friends and everything. It’s like why is he leaving like stay? Yeah. You know he’s like he’s like why? And then he gets, you know, he goes to Boston and it was just a perfect situation for him. And he has these all these weapons around him. It brought out all of his strengths and everything. And it was like, it’s the prime definition for me in my lifetime that I always go back to him like, dude, fit meant everything for like Rondo’s career to start off in, you know, those Boston years and everything. So like, what is the definition of a good fit for people when they’re saying when they’re firing off, Dallas isn’t a good fit? I’m like, “So, your definition of a good fit is to like go to Washington or like Utah?” Like, I could hear a case for Utah. It’s like, “Oh, Will Hardy.” And it’s like, but still, it’s like, “Okay, the best fit is him to play with market in in Utah when they’re going to lose a ton of games.” And it’s like, I I guess I could hear it, but I feel like I can make just as good as as good a case for Dallas, too. So, I don’t know. I just don’t get the who determines a good fit or not. I want to be clear, that’s the only positive things we’ll ever say about Rondo on this show. Okay, that’s true. Just want to make sure that we’re on the same page with that. There’s probably a good chunk of Mavs fans right now who have no clue about the Rondo experience. Just go back and watch the the the one of the few Mavs games I went to before I covered the Mavericks, like as my job. Mavs versus Raptors when Rondo was yelling at Rick Carlile and Rondo just left the game and just walked into the locker room and just like left and Rockets. Where the heck did he go? Tough. And the only time I ever went to Rup Arena, by the way, to visit to see Kentucky. Rondo versus I don’t they playing Louisville. Your alma mater. Liberty. Yeah. My my parents both went there and so we went to go see Liberty and we saw Kentucky and Rondo was on the team and all I remember was just like that point guard has the longest arms I’ve ever seen. That’s that’s what that’s the only thing I remember about that. Yeah. Um Yeah, but it’s and I also think that Yeah. Just just being with with Derek Lively, I think it’s going to be a great fit and I I’m excited to see that combo for sure. As much as I’m excited to see AD and Flag, the the Lively and Flag combo is just going to be Yeah. And I think I mean I know you’ve done a lot of uh work and stuff on the timeline, you know, conversation, but I think some people see, hey, they have some win now players, so therefore he’s not a fit because they’re on this timeline. Or you get some ridiculous like Boogie Cousins like they should trade number one pick for KD because they’re in win now mode. It’s like guys, it doesn’t just because they have a couple win now players doesn’t mean uh that he’s not a fit because there’s a timeline already going. So anyway, just the whole conversation around draft picks and the fits. It’s so relative and so all over the place that uh yeah, I think it’s funny sometimes. coming up. One thing that I think will be incredible for him in the timeline that’ll help his development, the Mavericks can potentially offer him that none of these other top teams in the lottery could offer him. We’ll talk about that more coming [Music] up. All right, Isaac, we’re talking about ways that the Mavericks are a good fit for Cooper Flag, that in his career, it is good for him to come to the Mavericks, that the Mavericks got the number one pick and not a Charlotte or a Utah or somewhere else. Um, quick one. It’s tough media market. It’s an opportunity. There’s there’s opportunity there. Um, the the GM is really the GM really values defense over everything apparently and I think that’s a positive Cooper flag in his career. I I really tried to find something with that angle. It’s that he values defense over everything apparently. I was trying to craft a hey like more of a bigger thing of like it feels like everything you read about Cooper Flag is the things that they have like uh casually taking shots at about Luca. Um yeah, right. So it feels like you’re stepping into a situation to where these parts about you is going to get like raved about and maybe a little bit more than average too dude. Like go out of their way to do it. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, he’s already going to be like beloved wherever he went, but I think there might be an extra from the front office about him and stuff right now. The day that Nico goes and he works on his body, you know, he’s just he’s very in the gym. Like non-stop worker. People are just going to go nuts. Honestly, I know this is kind of crazy, but like kind of reminds me of Kobe back in he’s got that mamba mentality. Got the mentality. Oh, as soon as he says it, the thing that I think the Mavericks can offer him that none of these other teams can offer him, except for maybe maybe the Sixers, maybe the Pelicans could, is that they they’re going to make the playoffs. Oh, and getting getting that playoff opportunity early in your career. We’re seeing it with Anthony Edwards now that Anthony Edwards each year has gotten more and more playoff experience. And we’ve saw him against Memphis. We’ve seen him against, you know, the uh Denver. We’ve seen saw him against that LeBron Lakers team, the Phoenix Kevin Durant team. We saw him against the Luca Lakers. Now we’ve seen him against the Thunder. Like, he’s getting all this experience early. He’s not even 24 yet. And Flag is going to get that opportunity as well to get a lot of playoff experience early. And I think that that’s something that is really good for him to see that to see how you need to grow your game in an off seasonason after you make the playoffs. Like that is just such a learning curve opportunity that he should take and that hopefully the Mavs can give that for him. No. Yeah. I I think that’s great. I love that because I I’m in the I’ve always been in the camp that it’s not always the best thing for top prospects to go into losing situations and that this has been my when I when we were doing the show years ago and I was planting my flag on these many heels of like I don’t know about losing every game is the best thing because I just think losing and that atmosphere just it has an effect on players and development and mindset and so much uh especially early on. I I’ll stay off the court for a second because you mentioned just really bad for Justin Anderson’s career for the Maps to be losing all those games. Um a passionate fan base like there’s and now I you could maybe say it’s like a negative too of like hey well I could go somewhere and just kind of like just go on with my career and not like be under the microscope. Um, but there’s some other options there in that lottery, especially in the top lottery where I would say I know we’re in the bubble of the Mavs world, but I would say the Mavs fan base is more passionate than like um I don’t know, Pelicans. We’ll say that or uh I hate to bring Washington up all the time, but like Washington or you know, Philly obviously has a big one. So, I think Philly would be kind of equivalent uh to Dallas with that, but you’re going to step into a situation to where like you’re going to see your jerseys and stuff everywhere. We the fan base has uh been scarred, but like we’ve had these like young stars that have like grown up in the in Dallas and you you kind of adopted them, seen them uh as kind of like one of your own like, “Oh, cool.” And then, you know, your heart gets ripped out. But it it’s a I I don’t know. I I think it’s a positive to step into a passionate fan base. But how about a fan base that knows how to accept and love a star player? Like maybe I’m looking at maybe like the Spurs and Chicago are kind of the only other teams that have a fan base that have accepted their star players. A Jordan, a Derrick Rose, you know th those types of players. Obviously, you go from Dirk and you saw the love for Luca. Like that there is love for a star player here. If you can if you can get that from from Mavericks fans that just the loyalty doesn’t go away. It’s in the it’s in Maps fans DNA. and you know, he’s he’s big enough as a prospect that if he went to Charlotte, like he’s still going to be beloved in that city and all the stuff. Um, I think too, now that I’ve been thinking about it, um, another thing with having some of the the veteran leadership, those guys and these big personalities and AD and Kyrie and stuff, is you won’t always be the talking point on the local stations every single postame or like you have a bad game, you might not be the talking point for three hours of the radio show the next day because Kyrie could have went off for 40 or AD had a even worse game and it’s like people were debating AD and stuff over you in your 14th game of your rookie season. And it’s not he’s still going to be under the microscope, but I don’t know. That’s just how how about the GM is going to be under the microscope for every single thing he ever does next. Like Nico Harrison has now this target on his back from everybody. And I think it’s more about social than it is about radio shows and stuff now that there won’t be like Cooper flag is a Cooper flag is is a bust edits all over the place. There will be look at what Nico Harrison has done to this team or whatever. Anytime the Mavs fail, I think that like that will come up for sure. I feel like somebody’s listening to this and they’re like, “Dude, y’all are contradicting yourselves left and right.” Cuz I do feel like I am like passionate fan base. That’s a positive. then you won’t be the limelight because there’s other people and it’s like I feel like I am kind of going back and forth so I’m sorry. We’re only looking at the positives. Um can I I have some smaller ones. Okay, go ahead. Number 32 is open. That’s good. Some fan some teams it’s not it’s not not retired and not a current players not wearing it. So there you go. blue stuff still applies like all your blue gear, all the blue shoes and all the still matches if you want to match your socks and gear and all that stuff if if he’s frugal, you know, and doesn’t want to buy new things. Had to make 13 million. He was just m nil. I’m kidding about that one. I do have one one positional thing really quick and it’s saying I think he’s going to be forced to play a smaller position than what he’s used to and I think that could be positive for like a long-term effect on his career that you see you know I I look even like at Anthony Davis and so many people are like dude he played point guard in high school because he hadn’t hit a growth spurt yet and how that like oh that factored into you know this and that. I think it could you could look at it once you get later in his career and I think he could be looking back at it and like man those first two years I mean those first two years in Dallas I was playing two guard at times you know I was playing the three a lot and really my natural position is the four and so it’s like if he went to another team that didn’t have any of these bigger pieces I think they would just immediately pencil him in at the four where he’s played the most and it’s like it feels like the most natural position for him and saying like all right here you go now we’re gonna fit all this around. I just think this playing out of position a little bit or learning more of the other positions could have a positive effect on him throughout the rest of his career. Can I take a second and talk about Cooper Flag has been great for the Mavericks and been great for their business and been great for our business and all that. Stop. Rick Weltz had a quote in the Dallas Morning News today that just we were talking about it earlier today and it just rubbed me the wrong way. He said, quote, “I don’t think there’s ever been quite a reversal of fortune in our league.” You know, a lot of fans who maybe hadn’t had decided not to renew their tickets and called back and kind of apologized to their ticket person what they had said to them when we made that trade and asked if perhaps those seats might be available again. It’s just been incredible at every level of business. The report is that the Mavs made $7 million in ticket sales after they got the number one pick in the draft. And I just want to take a second and say, yeah, great. Okay, you guys lucked into it. It is the fortune. Like, it is great fortune for this team. The reason why it needed to be fortune and the reason why it needed to be such a reversal is because of the decision you guys made. And there still hasn’t really even been like admitted of contrition in any way to the fan base about that. And I just still think that they’re taking the wrong approach to comments like this. It’s like, “Oh, see they’re coming back. They apologize to their ticket person and it’s been great for us. It’s been great for us that this happened.” And you’re like, “Man, can we just can we not?” Yeah. This comment really frustrated me. Um I asked myself like, why why do you why do you say a comment like this, right? You’re either saying it from an angle of hey, I want to prove to people that like I want to show you guys that you were wrong and we were right. I don’t think it’s fully as that. I could be wrong. I don’t think it is either. I fully think it’s probably like a business angle like, hey, he wants to put that out there to like tell investors or like sponsorships and everything. It’s like another public statement of like, hey, we’re back like we’re back up, you know, the meme and stuff and like our people, you know, they left but they came back and all this stuff. But it also there’s a there’s a communication that you’re making to your fan base that is does kind of put you up there saying that like you’re like haha y’all were wrong and your your feelings were invalid in a way. Like when you go as far as saying that like they called even saying like apologized and like you know the same people who like you know called and cancelled even some of the ticket holders you know telling them that they’ve changed their and it’s like okay like if that’s happened I don’t once again my whole thing would be it just completely different of how they’ve handled this like PR-wise of like just your communication of it and I get you’re not going to be able to stand up there and say hey we made the wrong decision. I’ve never said that they could do that because they just can’t say that. But what they what they still haven’t I I don’t think that they’ve approached any of these interviews or anything from is we broke the trust of our fan base. And every comment or interview and everything I think should be done from a standpoint of whether you’re confident in your decision, all the stuff, whatever should be done from a standpoint of, hey, we’re we just want to prove to our fans that we we want you to be proud to be a Mavs fan again. We want, you know, we want to we want to show that like we’re so invested in our future and we’re excited for Cooper Fle, you know, for this number one pick and that we hope that these people come back and we’ve seen a few or whatever, but like we hope that they come back and they want to be a part of the Mavs moving forward. We need them just an acknowledgment of we lost trust, how we want to build that back. And that’s the lens I think all the PR stuff should be through and it just hasn’t. It hasn’t been at all and it still hasn’t. Yeah, if this quote came with, you know, they apologized their ticket person and you know what they said to them and then asked if perhaps those seats might be available again. We’re so grateful that those those people are coming back and we’d like we’re ready to prove to to them to get their trust back again. Like just even that that’s not even admitting that the trade was bad. Like cuz you can believe you made the right decision. Yeah. And still believe and recognize and acknowledge that you broke you lost a lot of trust in your fan base and you have to work to do to build it back. I was talking to one of my friends who has little kids and he was he was he was was driving back and him and his his daughter always get like slushies on the way back from like something they do together and they couldn’t do it one day and he’s like the amount of tears and just crying like hurt me so badly that I could like I couldn’t but it was the right choice it was the right choice that he had to make. Yeah. you know, because to like not do it for what for whatever reason it was. And he’s like, “But I just couldn’t get myself.” I just kept apologizing over and over again, even though I knew it was the right thing. I couldn’t do that 40. I just couldn’t do it. There’s something about it. And I was like that in a in a dumb way feels feels like this. It’s never going to go away. Guys, thanks for hanging out with us on Lockdown Mabs. We’ll be back with more all throughout the week. Next week, we’ll have guests. We’ll talk about the draft, talk about Cooper flag and all that and more. Thanks so much for listening to Lock and Maps. Peace out. Boom.

The Dallas Mavericks are a perfect fit for Cooper Flagg, offering championship experience and offensive opportunities. Flagg’s development could thrive alongside Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, and the Mavs’ veteran core in the NBA.

Nick Angstadt and Isaac Harris discuss why the Dallas Mavericks are an ideal landing spot for Cooper Flagg, exploring the benefits of playing with experienced veterans and a structured system. They analyze how Flagg could fit with Dereck Lively II, Klay Thompson, and PJ Washington, while also touching on the Mavs’ playoff potential and passionate fan base.

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